


I fell in love 20 years ago

by johnwonu



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Future, Engineer Jeon Wonwoo, Future Fic, Idiots in Love, M/M, Researcher Kim Mingyu, Smart SVT, Time Travel, damn cool svt, honestly the entire fic is just, lol, scoups has an mit doctorate, this is a mess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-04
Updated: 2020-04-04
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:08:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 20,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23472976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/johnwonu/pseuds/johnwonu
Summary: It's the year 2845 and Junhui was accidentally left 20 years in the future. So Mingyu and Wonwoo time travels to bring him back home. Along the way they realize the familiarity they have with each other might not be platonic after all, and they only needed the existence of their wonderful son to prove it to them.or to put it simply;Minwoo: What are you doing here dad?Wonwoo: Are u talking to me?Minwoo: Duh, dad.Mingyu: *whispers loudly* Omg wonwoo it's ur kid from the future!Minwoo: What're you saying, dad? You're my dad too.Mingyu: *faints*(not texting fic tho sry lol)
Relationships: Jeon Wonwoo/Kim Mingyu
Comments: 26
Kudos: 239





	I fell in love 20 years ago

**Author's Note:**

> Hello :D
> 
> I hope you'll enjoy this fic as much as I did writing it lol. This is absolutely not proofread so like excuse the errors. There might be a couple of loose ends in there but I'll clarify them in the end notes. Also, I have to mention that there are quite some cursings in here and it's all around the areas of 'fuck' so if your innocent soul can't handle dem letters well sis watchu doin on this websitee sksks jk. It's nothing harsh but if you're uncomfortable with it then you might not be happy with my writing style in which I sometimes stray away from formal writing to absolute and utter trashy slang language in just one sentence. This was also not meant to be this deep but I just kept writing and writing and then I was like what just happened it's 20k asghjfdhjlkl??
> 
> 🍭 This story may be set in the future (specifically the year 2845), but the setting is very similar to our 21st century, the only difference is that there are secondary genders. So let's just assume there was a World's End catastrophe in the 23rd century that wiped out 99% of civilization, and the ones who remained evolved by adapting a secondary gender in order to survive. They became the 'new' stone age so then they evolved and developed until they reached their own version of the Digital age in 2845. 
> 
> In short, wtf did I just write lmao 
> 
> Enjoy! ;DD

_**Your prompt:** Kim Mingyu and Jeon Wonwoo use a time machine to go to the future, and they meet a kid that immediately recognizes them as their parents. Cue the awkwardness._

🍭

"Are you sure this will work?" Mingyu asks as he struggles to put on the makeshift oxygen gas mask he was told to put on. The alpha male eyes the ‘mask’ with a dubious expression to whether this whole thing about them going to time travel in about less than an hour from now even legit in the first place – for all he knows they might just be trolling him.

A fact that he can at least stand by is that the ‘mask’ isn’t even a mask, it’s literally a white full-face biker’s helmet, with a bunch of duct tape strapped around a plastic tube attached to the – also makeshift – 'breathing-backpack' (as Mingyu calls it) that is basically just a small gas tank tucked inside the backpack he has on his back.

"Yeah, 75% positive it'll work," the blonde male beta wearing a simple tee and jeans standing a few feet to his left states nonchalantly as he smashes the keyboard on the PC setup linked to a tall oak wardrobe propped in the middle of the otherwise, large and empty room.

"What do you mean only 75-" Mingyu stops himself from finishing the sentence as he sighs and groans. Dropping his hands to his side, along with the helmet he had failed to stuff his head in, "Just, promise me I won't die," he exhales while looking up, as if praying to the Gods for whatever it is to – if actually comes – come, not mess him up too badly.

Another man wearing a dark maroon turtleneck under a black leather jacket laughs upon hearing Mingyu's defeated remark. The raven-haired alpha was tall too, although not as tall as Mingyu. He was now crouching down facing an opened panel on the side of the tall closet, with a bunch of tools sprawled around him.

The taller alpha may be incredibly smart in his field but this sort of rundown setup by these other intelligent men in the room is really giving him some serious case of the doubts.

From where Mingyu was standing he could see it, the subtle-but-there glow of pink and purple radiating from inside the panel. Wires and other techy things he doesn’t understand, all connected to the powered-up piece of glowing stone locked into its designated slot.

Rose-Quartz X, – or just Quartz X – Mingyu believes. The rare and powerful stone that can only be extracted from very specific kinds of meteorites. The name adopted due to its similar appearance to the rose-quartz crystal. The rare stone is, however, radioactive and compacts an immense amount of energy, even within just a nano amount, making it an incredibly active element.

Just a speck of the gem can power up an entire city for a whole week, deeming it to be the most powerful source of energy known to mankind, that is, regardless of the intention of its usage. Which is why, as of the year 2845, Quartz X is deemed illegal in basically all states of the world – for fear of any ill-intention-derived form of exploitation.

Mingyu understands now _why_ it's illegal, seeing how some people end up building a ‘time machine’ around it.

"You know I don't do promises, Gyu. I only speak based on facts," the blonde beta continues – still typing on the keyboard, eyes glued on the monitor, without even sparing a glance to Mingyu, who is currently, very clearly, thrown into a depressing state of absolute dilemma.

"At least," the tall brunette grunts, "-at least promise me I won't lose a limb?"

The beta lets out a small chuckle, exposing his dimples before replying, "Well, since the portal may close abruptly upon any possibilities of unexpected disturbance within the forcefield, I can't really say whether you wo-"

"Hansol," Another man, an omega, wearing similar attire to Mingyu walks into the room and interrupts, "I think we shouldn't make the subject feel more anxious than he already is."

"Did you just call me 'subject'? Am I an experiment after all?!" Mingyu exclaims with panic in his voice.

"No, you're not," the alpha mechanic with the leather jacket spoke again. "And we agreed on this, the right term is 'voyager', stop addressing him as subject." The man tries to say sternly, although actually sounding like he was sulking, “And stop being so cold to Gyu, I totally see the way you guys text each other so you can drop the act, at least in front of us.”

The omega sneers before glancing over to Mingyu who has long drifted away from whatever the other alpha was ranting on about, busy struggling and fiddling with the clasp on his helmet with a clear frown on his face. The omega decides to disregard the pouting mechanic and walk over to help Mingyu out instead.

Mingyu notices the slight movement towards his direction so he brought his head up to see the man beginning to pace towards him.

The tall alpha gulps a little as the omega’s scent begins to whiffs into his space as he draws near. The familiar notes of lavender, cedarwood and something citrusy he can’t put a name on. He’s not entirely sure if it’s mixed with the elder’s cologne but overall, it is a wonderful mix of fragrances that he’s sure he can get addicted to if he keeps on indulging into it. It doesn’t help that the omega is looking damn fine as he struts his way to him.

In a well-fitted, white, padded leather jacket with dark purple lines decorating all over, tracing the sides of the torso and crossing over the chest, meeting with a similar purple line across each side of the shoulders, that bends midway and joins together as it drops to a single line running through his back. There was also a small triangle-like logo inked on the right chest, the symbol of the Consortium but _their own_ version.

The jacket is well-tailored to him, with the lines accentuating the man's thin body making him appear a little leaner than usual. Along with a matching fitted - tight - pair of white leather pants hugging his thighs (Mingyu gulps), that is also lined with dark purple stripes that make the legs seem like they could go on forever, and greyish combat boots completing his uniform.

In other words, the man looks stunning in his voyage gear and Mingyu couldn’t stop himself staring even after the man halted right in front of him. His ashy grey hair tousled in all the right directions with the fringe draping over his eyes, covering them just slightly.

The brunette was wearing an identical uniform to the omega but he doubts he looks _that_ gorgeous in it, considering it wasn't tailored to his size anyway. The sleeves on his fell a little short from reaching his wrists and the pants are basically above his ankles, but he’d like to argue that he may have a little more – more than enough – muscle to fill up the suit compared to the omega.

The mesmerizing creature brings his gaze up to Mingyu’s pouty face and snatches the helmet off his hand, bringing it up onto the alpha’s head.

“If anything, it’s Hansol’s fault for riling up Mingyu in the first place,” the omega remarks and the mechanic continues whining about how his two engineers just need to work on their social skills and mind the words they’re spitting out.

"Okay fine, I accept the blame," the previous man, Hansol – the beta making Mingyu regret his every decision in life that had led him to this particular moment of pre-departure anxiety - says, still in the same tone as prior, "sorry, Gyu."

Mingyu just leers towards the beta. He knows the younger doesn't mean that apology at all.

The omega in front of him chuckles before patting the tall alpha’s bicep in an attempt to calm him down, "Don't worry, Mingyu. I told you all about that trial run a couple weeks back, remember?"

Mingyu nods.

"You don't see me losing any limbs," the omega is pulling down on the obviously wrong-sized helmet as hard as he could.

He's still struggling and Mingyu is helping too by pushing down on it with both hands on the top of the helmet as hard as he could. They were both grunting as they forced Mingyu's poor big head into the protective gear.

"But if you're that worried," the omega grunts again, still yanking on the straps. After a couple more tugs and shoves, the brunette’s head finally slips in and they both exhale a sigh of fucking finally, "I'll promise you instead,” he gives a small nod, “it'll be fine."

The pale omega was standing very close to him. Helping him clasp the metal buckle under his chin and tugging a little on the purple spray-painted gas tube along the sides - that matches with the lines on the jacket - to ensure it wasn't tangled in any way.

"Thanks, Wonwoo" the alpha smiles bashfully - and blushes a little as he looks into the omega's dark orbs. Wonwoo's eyes were sharp and held a really strong gaze, the kind that Mingyu believes can really make his knees buckle under.

The side of Wonwoo's lips curls up in a small smile before he outright smacked the front of the helmet on the alpha’s head, not too harshly but enough to make the latter stumble back a little from their close proximity.

"That's hyung for you," Wonwoo says as he walks away, over to another set of oxygen mask and tank sitting on the table next to Hansol's workstation.

"Ouch, hyung," Mingyu tries to rub his face - only realizing that it didn't do anything to soothe the rather numbing sensation from the smack because he was rubbing the visor on his helmet instead - and whines.

Wonwoo notices and shakes his head a little before putting on his own helmet easily, clearly made for him. He smiles quietly to himself; the younger was adorable in his innate gestures of confusion.

"We live in the 29th century, Wonwoo. No one uses honorifics anymore," the mechanic who was working on the wires sticking out on the side of the closet says, still in his whiny tone, as he finishes up and screws the panels shut.

"We're still Korean, _even_ in this 29th century, Seungcheol-hyung. And I'd like to keep that respectful culture, thank you very much," Wonwoo turns to grab his own ‘breathing-backpack’ and slings it on his back.

"Hansol, you can go and get changed. I'll finish up, the quartz will react in less than 20 minutes so we can't miss the timing to jump," Seungcheol says, completely ignoring whatever Wonwoo was saying, payback for what the latter had done just before.

"Right. Thanks!" The beta says before walking out the only door leading into the room to get changed into his voyage gear.

Seungcheol leaves his toolbox on the side of the PC setup as he starts on whatever it is Hansol had left from, "Great, I think it's well-calibrated already so we'll be ready for departure in 10 minutes now,"

Mingyu flails his arms around in a panic upon hearing the alpha's words and breathes so loudly it almost sounds like he was going to hyperventilate, "I'm not ready!"

Seungcheol just laughs at the sight of the tall bulky alpha pacing around the room in a panic state, "You need to chill Mingyu. You're going to have Wonwoo and Hansol with you, I'm sure you'll be safe."

"Safe?! If it's safe then you wouldn't have ended up leaving Jun-hyung in the first place-" Mingyu widens his eyes to glare at Seungcheol, before adding another line to his rant, "-in the freaking future!" he emphasizes with his arms flailing about.

"We didn't leave him, _he_ separated from us,” the omega replies calmly.

“But you’re here and he’s not so that still means you L-E-F-T him???”

“It's not our fault, we kind of panicked and forgot to actually do a body count when the timer started beeping. You’d _normally_ assume he’d be beside you since you were all in a legit foreign place-"

“Um, Junhui-hyung doesn’t do _normal_???”

“Hey, kind of rude-” Seungcheol interrupted the tall alpha.

"Still! I can't believe you forgot him!"

"You would panic too when a blaring alarm on your watch counts down the seconds to your escape from being trapped 20 years in the future! And the door slams shut so strongly that you can't hold it open anyway-" Wonwoo retorts, defending himself from Mingyu's satirical remark.

“Well, he _is_ trapped 20 years in the future!”

“Well, we _are_ going to save him?” the omega snorts. Mingyu pouts, still not relenting.

"Doesn't change the fact that he's all alone, 20 years in the future! You don't even know if he's doing okay- he might be so scared-" Mingyu gasps dramatically as he brings his hands to cover his gaping mouth, "Maybe he's dead-"

Wonwoo scoffs, "Pfft, you don't know Junhui. He can be surrounded by a pack of lions and still be cracking jokes about how 'manestream' they are or something."

Mingyu is pretty sure that joke is not Junhui's. Wonwoo's the one with the passion for dad jokes.

"And for the record, the comm I built, yeah, the one you're wearing," Wonwoo points to the sleek silver watch wrapped around Mingyu's wrist. "I applied the same tech from the machine and worked around the energy from the gem, so we managed to achieve contact with Jun- and to add to that record, he's absolutely fine!"

Mingyu gasps loudly, "You used Quartz X- _again?_ ” He exhales, “Y'all are going to get caught someday for sure!"

“We won’t, if you shut that blabbermouth-”

"Can you two lovebirds like, stop arguing? I'm trying to work here." Seungcheol finally voices out, sounding a little annoyed as he types in more sequences of numbers and letters into the system.

Wonwoo and Mingyu settle back to their spaces and quiets down.

But not for long until Mingyu fidgets and starts pacing around again, “Can you tell me _why_ you can’t go instead, Coups-hyung? I mean I can be the one managing the thingy when you guys jump right? It can’t be that hard- just push some buttons-”

“The fact that you just called the system a _thingy_ automatically cancels out any intention I have of letting you man this station. Besides, I’m the only one who can work the sequence fast enough to commence the jump. Hansol typos a lot so he can’t be the one working it and we need Wonwoo’s speedy hands on the other side,” the alpha replies.

“I’m sure I can type as fast! Do you know how many research papers I’ve written in just the past week, hyung? Five! I wrote five! That is unheard of!”

“It’s not just typing, Gyu. I doubt you can take a look at any of the sequences and understand even a line from the whole prompt.” The omega sides with Seungcheol, “Plus, we need your strength too. I told you-”

“Seungcheol-hyung’s just as strong as I am though-”

“But he needs to stay?” Wonwoo raises an eyebrow.

Mingyu sinks into a defeated posture and the omega walks over to give the taller a pat in the back, “Don’t worry, we won’t need your help anymore after this if we manage to set up an automated response counterpart. But since we’re still working on the new parts and rescuing Junhui is kind of the priority right now, we need all hands on deck for this one,”

"It'll be fine, Mingyu. Don't you trust us?" Seungcheol asks, voice convincing.

"O-of course I do! If I didn’t, I wouldn't be here in the first place!" the brunette almost wails.

Of course he trusts them. Seungcheol, Hansol, Junhui, and Wonwoo were a few of the best mechs of the nation’s entire generation. Considering they are working under the supervision of the Diamond Edge Consortium itself proves their credibility of being exceptional engineers.

The Diamond Edge Consortium is known to be the world's number one association of garnering outstanding professionals. Kim Mingyu is also a part of the association, although he belongs in the more research department and not in the developmental department like the rest.

There are other departments in the consortium and as a whole, it ‘aims to grant civilization, the best quality of life via breakthrough inventions, revolutionary research ideas and top-tier services.’

Yet here they are, in the secret basement of Seungcheol's home. In makeshift spacesuits, illegally obtained power crystals and a bloody time machine made out of a large wooden closet, erect in the middle of the room.

The first time he had heard the news that his ‘engineer’ friends had figured out time travel he absolutely, couldn't – didn’t - believe it. He received a panicked description from Seungkwan, a colleague of his - also Hansol's boyfriend - of how he witnessed them commit to the act.

Mingyu almost shrugged him off saying the other man was plain ridiculous and that it was impossible for a group of just four men to had successfully achieved something the entire world has been trying to do since the existence of logic.

But when Seungkwan quietly whispers how they had _used up_ a whole fist size of Quartz X as the power generator Mingyu almost coughed out his lunch, disbelieving how they did not die - he's sure they're alive because he still gets replies on his text to Wonwoo later - after encountering such massive amount of energy. Seungkwan explained witnessing Wonwoo, Hansol, and Junhui disappear from the closet in a blinding glow of purple and pink, and Junhui not leaving it after, so Mingyu somehow thinks it _may_ be possible.

He’s not a skeptic. He’s a researcher, he knows theories and concepts are just bound to meet reality one way or another but the possibility of being in the same timeline – and in acquaintance with the people who will sign their names into the books of history for this breakthrough moment – brings him into a state of utter speechlessness.

He wants to doubt any possibility of it being real and that maybe he’s just being scammed or something. He whips his head around looking for any hidden cameras because he knows his friends can be assholes when they want to. But looking at how Seungkwan looks like he’s on the verge of losing his sanity, he maybe _wants_ to believe the amazing minds over at the development department actually figured _something_ out? Because either way no one really knows the extent of the power Quartz X may hold.

"Okay we're down to 3 minutes, you two can go into the closet," Seungcheol says.

Mingyu snorts, "I came out of the closet in high school, you're telling me to go back in."

Wonwoo just shakes his head at the tall alpha's dry humor and Seungcheol just glances up to Mingyu, unamused.

The omega steps up into the large, tall closet with Mingyu lingering behind him, his hands open, ready to catch his hyung if he falls.

Wonwoo turns and realizes Mingyu's sweet gesture. He tries not to smile and just gives the grinning brunette an emotionless expression instead.

"Were you looking at my butt?" Wonwoo plays, bringing his hands to his bottom, pretending to sound scandalized.

The brunette didn't reply and maintained his grin as he climbs onto the closet, standing close beside the omega, sticking their shoulders together.

Wonwoo smacks Mingyu in the chest, "Pervert."

He just chuckles, still looking at the pretty omega to his side.

Wonwoo could feel a sort of warmth creeping up his neck so he turns away from the alpha's gaze immediately and pushes the man away from him, brushing off his shoulders with a look of disgust painted on his face.

The younger has always been playful with Wonwoo and he is used to replying to the weird antics of the alpha coldly. This sort of dynamic has settled between them as the most comfortable form of interaction they'd _like_ to receive from each other.

They have been friends for almost 2 years, having first met through mutual acquaintances from the Consortium. Their circle of friends amounted to 13 people of various ages and departments but all really got along and had gatherings occasionally. Most of them were in a relationship - of some sort - with one another anyway so it made the bonding between them much easier and stronger.

Wonwoo believes the younger is friendly with all of his friends, and if Mingyu tries to squeeze between the omega and anyone talking to him, while casually bringing his arms around their shoulders then it’s probably just his way of showing his love for all his friends.

He knows the alpha loves demanding his share of skinship and although Wonwoo is never really a fan of any close contact, he finds himself not too bothered by the alpha’s attempts at snuggling close to him. He’s not sure if it’s just the calming alpha scent having its effect on his omega but it _is_ sort of endearing and he guesses the reason he can never say no, is probably because the alpha would just resort to bringing his inner puppy to life every time anyone rejects his affection.

"I'm still not kidding though; you guys need to stop experimenting with Quartz X. What if one of these days something happens?" Mingyu says as he fiddles with the tight clasp digging into the skin under his chin.

The omega notices, reaches up and fingers the buckle, trying to loosen up the strap.

Mingyu's heart starts picking up its pace upon being in real close proximity with the elder again, with his cold fingers brushing the skin on his neck and chin.

"We'll be fine," Wonwoo replies casually.

"How are you so sure, hyung?"

“I told you! As long as YOU don’t open your blabbermouth,” the omega pretends to scold and Mingyu just grins into the act.

Wonwoo hums, a little hesitant to continue but proceeds anyway with a voice so low it just comes out as a mumble, "And... we kind of figured out a way to contain the energy and deactivate it when we need to so-"

"You can control the quartz?!" Mingyu's wide eyes trained on Wonwoo's.

The elder brings his hands down after successfully loosening up the strap under the younger's chin, giving a slight questioning look to the younger; asking if it was loose enough.

Mingyu understood the motion and nodded with a smile, telling Wonwoo it feels much better, before shifting his face back into the look of shock painted on his expression, "You figured out the quartz... you guys are so cool, hyung. I wish I could do what you guys do."

"Hey, you've got your thing," Wonwoo nudges Mingyu's arms with his elbow. "You're exceptional at yours and I can't do what you do so,"

The brunette’s expression warms again as he turns completely to face Wonwoo. He looks like he's so touched he could cry, "Just don't get caught, hyung," Mingyu places his hands on either side of Wonwoo's shoulders, eyes locked on the elder.

Wonwoo pushes his arms away before replying, "We won't, as long as you don't blabber that mouth of yours when this is over."

The alpha laughs at the multiple warning. _He’s not_ that _talkative!_

Something aches in Mingyu's chest when he hears Wonwoo says this will come to an end – of course it would. He won't be here beside Wonwoo again for a next time. He's only here to help this once.

Wonwoo and Seungcheol came up to Mingyu a few days after he'd heard about the whole time-travel thing and the missing mechanic, to ask for his favor. That they needed a strong enough pair of arms to help them in their next voyage, their rescue attempt for Wen Junhui.

Mingyu freaked out for a couple of minutes before he agreed to help - with whatever you need, even if it means just holding a door open, how hard can it be, he says.

Wonwoo explains how the forcefield was too strong for just him and Hansol previously so they need someone probably as strong as Seungcheol to help out, and that he knows Mingyu works out a lot - and is really good at it, based on his selfie updates to Wonwoo every week - so Wonwoo tells him that this is his time to shine and put those guns to good use.

Mingyu blushes unashamedly at the remark and Seungcheol just rolls his eyes at the embarrassingly - obliviously - whipped piece of Mingyu in front of him.

Nevertheless, he is grateful Mingyu could give them a hand - literally? - so he shows Mingyu their secret lair the day after and lends Mingyu his voyage gear, seeing how Mingyu is built as wide as he is. He’d best fit Seungcheol's suit compared with the other lanky squadrons. 

"Okay Hansol, you ready?" Seungcheol pats Hansol in the back before giving the latter a high five after he's put on the last of his voyage gear.

"Climbing in," Hansol says, still maintaining the neutral tone in his voice and Mingyu wonders if this is really the man that is able to put up with the neurotic scientist, Boo Seungkwan's endless chatters, as he mounts the closet.

They are so dissimilar it intrigues Mingyu to how their attraction works. How the beta’s lack of emotions and the omega’s intense means of expressing himself brings them together. Maybe opposites really do attract.

The moment the blonde beta manages to settle in, he and Wonwoo shuts the door and latches the lock into its place, "We're in," he tiptoes and peeks a little to the horizontal glass fixing on the highest part of the closet, giving a thumbs up to Seungcheol stationed outside.

Mingyu is tall enough that he can just crane his head up to look out the glass fixing. So he notices the hue surrounding them outside of the closet beginning to color. He gasps, Seungkwan was right about how the color literally bleeds into the atmosphere, painting everything it touches.

He is so mesmerized, "Wow, it’s so... pretty."

"Right?" Wonwoo says quietly as the brunette heeds into the omega’s low voice resonating into his ear, "This is why I can never let go of the quartz."

Mingyu chuckles silently, “You can’t even see, hyung.”

Wonwoo smacks the alpha’s chest one more time before sighing, “Yeah, we should’ve placed the fixing lower. Junhui’s an idiot for installing it at ‘not normal human’ height. He’s so dumb, I mean he can’t see through them either. I don’t get his thought process,” the omega complains.

“You’re so cute when you complain, hyung,” Mingyu blurts with that stupid canine grin plastered on his face.

Wonwoo says nothing as he smacks the alpha’s chest again, silently thanking the colors bleeding into the closet hiding the blush starting to color his cheeks.

The elder curses his inner omega for always wanting to react to everything the alpha does. He wants to slap the omega to his senses and tell it everything Mingyu does is basically platonic so don’t go on melting every time the dumb alpha pheromones pick up on the offense.

The closet is silent for a couple of seconds as everyone takes in the streams of pink and purple aurora painting the world outside. (As much as visible anyway.) The light is so bright that it makes everything else seem a little dimmer. Seungcheol taps into the comm in their earpiece telling them to prepare for their jump.

Mingyu was starting to panic when he decides to look over to the omega to his side. Distracting himself, he studies the features on Wonwoo's face decorated with the tint of pinkish hue.

The color complimenting his pale complexion, giving his satin skin the gleam, he never realized the elder even had. Even through the narrow frame provided by the visor, he could make out that little pointy nose, small nostrils that always scrunch up whenever he smiles or laughs with his entire heart.

From the angle provided by his height, he could see the omega’s lips, a little glossy from the mint-flavored lip balm he always has on. A little hidden under the helmet but there’s the strong brows framing his face, that would always stay slightly hidden behind the ashy fringe sitting on his forehead.

His glassy dark brown orbs reflecting the hue outside, making it look like he's carrying the galaxy in them. He looks absolutely stunning.

Wonwoo is beautiful.

His eyes bring him to the piece of skin under his left jaw, partly hiding behind the helmet. Has he never noticed that tiny mole sitting on the edge of his jaw before? Have his lips always been that pink and plushy-

Mingyu could feel the blood rushing to his face, he knows for a fact his ears are red now because his face is so warm. He’s lucky if his helmet doesn’t fog up soon. Just from the thought of those glossy lips against his- Oh no! He shouldn’t go there; he probably won’t be able to take it if that ever happens.

Mingyu is very gay, that’s for sure. But for some reason he’s sure he’s never pursued Wonwoo in that manner. Although there is no denying his attraction to the elder male, he’s never really thought of doing those things to Wonwoo – with Wonwoo. _Why?_

Maybe because he really wants to befriend the enchanting omega. So maybe he was worried he’d scare the elder away. Even if Wonwoo is an incredible engineer, he is still an omega. He is still subject to some level of societal discrimination and expectations about the way an omega should behave.

Mingyu absolutely does not want the elder to feel like he should feel complied to yield under their statuses and that just because he is an alpha he may have superiority over how omegas respond to him.

So maybe from the very first day they met, he’d probably unconsciously set up that line for himself not to cross.

Maybe it’s because deep down he knows Wonwoo doesn’t and probably would never see him that way, from his guess at how the omega replies to his advances.

Mingyu is also an attention whore, he has publicly exclaimed multiple times that he might rot if he doesn’t get attention. But above all, he really mostly longs for attention from the omega. He absolutely loves it even if Wonwoo is just sparing him a glance. It makes his heart go a little offbeat whenever that happens and the feeling is so pleasant.

He wants the elder to look at him more, to think of him more. He wants the elder’s mind to fill up with the thought of him sometimes, just like how Mingyu’s mind is being dominated by Wonwoo now.

He feels giddy whenever the omega smiles at him and he wants Wonwoo to feel the same thing too; he wants Wonwoo to be happy too. But he finds it that he tastes something bitter on his tongue whenever they all go out to gatherings and omega is smiling at someone else, or when his attention is on another alpha at the bar. He kind of wants Wonwoo to _only_ feel something with him, to be happy when he’s with Mingyu.

Mingyu’s stare lingers on Wonwoo’s eyes, ones that are focused on the screen to their right. If they say the eyes are the windows to the soul then Mingyu really wants to break into that window and just dive, or outright drown into that dark brown colored abyss. There’s something beautiful with the gaze that Wonwoo’s eyes hold, like there’s a force of magnet pulling him from behind them and Mingyu really does not mind if he spends all day just looking into them.

Why does he feel this way with Wonwoo but not with someone else? Not even his hot ex or any other pretty omega around him. He feels his heart call out to Wonwoo and it hurts him to think about how the elder doesn’t feel the same way.

He thinks about this all the time and he’s never really figured out what the emotions mean. This is a first for Mingyu.

He thinks this is what they are talking about when they say; crush. _Does he have a crush on Jeon Wonwoo?_

Has he finally crossed that line he had somewhat set up for himself? Is he going to cross it? _Should_ he cross it?

What would Wonwoo think if he knows about this _crush?_

He bites his lips and tries to distract himself by tracing down Wonwoo’s jaw to his neck finding any other marks he probably should’ve noticed before. All the way and a little further down to that curve that connects the neck to his collarbones. That pretty collarbone peeking out from his round neck undershirt whenever he turns his head to the side.

The alpha in him is silently letting out a growl and Mingyu agrees. He wants to bare his teeth and sink his canines right onto that smooth texture of skin on this beautiful creatu-

"Ready for the jump. Departing in 10-" Seungcheol's voice registers into their earpiece, startling Mingyu from his trance, bringing his fingers to a tremble from the nerves. Yet he still can't move his gaze from the slightly shorter male standing to his side.

There’s something about the way the Quartz is tinting the omega’s skin that really draws Mingyu in. He’s finding it difficult to breathe or to even think straight. Maybe he’s just nervous, but is it from the jump or is it his newly established feeling for the beautiful omega beside him.

This is a weird feeling.

9.

Wonwoo notices the _torn_ tension radiating from Mingyu and turns to face the younger.

Mingyu visibly gulps when his eyes meet with the pretty omega.

8.

There it is, that pull from Wonwoo’s gaze, bringing him into a trance again.

7.

6.

Wonwoo thinks the younger is probably terrified of the jump and contemplates doing something he knows will calm the alpha for sure.

"5,"

The closet vibrates and begins to shake a little as Seungcheol proceeds with the countdown. Mingyu clenches his fist tightly.

"4,"

"3,"

Wonwoo glances down to Mingyu's trembling hands and gives the younger that curious tilt of the head. Their shared understanding of the elder asking whether he was okay.

"2, don't forget to breathe guys,"

Mingyu and Wonwoo still have their eyes locked on one another as the younger has yet given the omega his answer. The alpha clenches his fist even tighter that he knows his nails are probably leaving indents on his palm.

"1-"

Wonwoo finally goes _fuck it_ and reaches out in an instant to catch Mingyu's hand in his, radiating his pheromones as much as he can to fill the mind of the younger. He interlocks their fingers and Mingyu grips his hand like his life depends on it.

Mingyu didn't have time to revel in the fact that his crush – the one he had only realized about a few seconds ago – had just willingly gripped his hands back. And how he swore the omega was radiating his intoxicating scent of lavender and cedarwood, in an attempt to distract him because the closet shakes rather violently. Pushing the three of them towards the back panel, Mingyu and Wonwoo still hand-in-hand as Hansol flung towards the same direction, the inertia forcing and locking them there.

They try their best to maintain their balance as the force around them seems to make it feel like there is something placed on top of their chest, squeezing their lungs making it difficult to breathe and there’s something burning their insides spreading and just bleeding throughout their whole body. If not for the helmet providing them enough oxygen to keep their pulse in check they would probably be knocked out from the intense pressure by now.

The alpha tries to ignore the earthquake he feels around him and concentrates on the warmth he feels between his fingers, also trying to disregard how clammy his hands currently feel as rays of white and gold diffuse his vision to absolute pitch black.

He hadn't realized he had actually had his eyes close. He creaks them open, allowing them to adjust with the current state of brightness, which is, to put into visual context; about the level of a normal summer afternoon.

He peeks out the glass fixing, trying to make out where they are but he couldn't see much from the angle. Clothes?

_Are they here? Did they make it?_

He doesn’t even know how long it had been. It felt like it could be hours but also mere seconds. The voyage left a puzzling sensation in his body.

"Guys, I’m reading no velocity. Have you arrived? Do you copy?" Seungcheol's voice struck Mingyu out of his thought. He turns to look at the faces of the other two individuals in the same space as him.

Hansol is as nonchalant as ever. Maybe it’s the helmet making his expression less visible but from what Mingyu could see, the beta seems unbothered that they had been flung all over the place just seconds ago. Straightening himself up to his full height, he moves to one of the panels, taps the metal plane to bring them down automatically and begins typing on the mounted keyboard.

"Yeah, we copy. Told you we'll still be able to maintain vocal contact," Wonwoo’s voice sounds through the comm in the alpha’s ears, sounding a little proud as he replies to Seungcheol.

"Yeah yeah, your tech bombs," Seungcheol exhales a sigh of release before he snickers.

Wonwoo smiles proudly to himself upon hearing the praise from their leader. Mingyu has that feeling somewhere in his tummy again upon seeing the smug smile from his otherwise ‘cold-faced’ hyung.

“How long were we out?” Wonwoo asked again.

Seungcheol hummed and the sound of typing on keyboards registered into the comm, “Just under seven hours. You departed at 1700,”

Mingyu gasps as he turns to look at Wonwoo.

“And it’s almost midnight here now,” Seungcheol continued.

“That was seven hours?!” the tall alpha says breathlessly.

“It was eleven hours before,” their leader’s voice came up again. “Something still isn’t right. As we expected, travel time reduced by increasing the amount of X, but I think we’ll need to recalculate better for the next time, Won.”

Mingyu raises his eyebrow in a questioning gaze.

The omega nods before turning his gaze away from Mingyu, “Yeah. Our calculations should’ve reduced travel time by half though. I’ll work on it later, I guess.”

“I can’t believe that was seven hours. I swear we were just standing for like ten seconds,” Mingyu shakes his head and wraps his free hand around his torso to shake off the goosebumps he’s feeling.

Just then Hansol had moved over and managed to tackle the latch holding the door together, having no problem to fully unlock and turn the latch, before turning to the couple and giving them a roll of his eyes, "Cheol, I sent out a signal to Junhui and I just turned the latch, I'm going to breach the forcefield."

"Okay, it should be weakened by now. You think you can manage?"

The omega turns to look at the tall alpha, giving him that head tilt again with a slight squeeze in his hand. The taller man just burst into a grin and nods, silently. Their code for 'Okay'.

"Are you guys done?” Hansol curses as he leans into the door to open it, “Yeah, opening it is way easier than closing it so I can manage _on my own_ " the beta says, rather annoyed, "Because the other two are busy eye-fucking over here."

Mingyu ignores the younger and continues to stare down the elder man he has beside him. The omega’s expression is blank as he reads something on the display on his watch. He turns to work something into the system with a single hand and the brunette realizes that their hands are still entwined firmly in Mingyu's grip. His heart raced in his chest again and he curses himself for not realizing his crush sooner. He could’ve turned into the excited high school girl with a crush that he _basically_ is much earlier.

The moment didn't last long because Wonwoo soon pulled his hand out of the younger's to bring them to the door, helping Hansol push the door to the closet open, “Just got a message from Jun with the new coordinates? I installed it onto our GPS,”

“Okay great. I told him we needed a more accurate one once we reached,” Hansol grunts as he leans onto the door with his whole weight.

"Where did you jump us to anyway?" Wonwoo stands on his tiptoes to try and peek out the glass fixing, but he doesn't see anything and gives up.

"I punched in the closest coordinates to Junhui's location I could calibrate, so... I'm not sure too," Hansol grunts a little as he leans his entire weight onto the door, trying to pry it open.

"Only one way to find out... only if-" Wonwoo swears he's doing his best to push the doors but they just wouldn't budge, "we... manage to- why is this heavier than before? Mingyu! A little help?!"

Mingyu finally realizes he was looking at his empty palm this whole time, and he tries not to look too deflated from the loss of warmth in his hands when he brings both his palms against the door and puts pressure on them - or rather shoves - the door with what is probably only a fraction of the strength he has.

The door bursts open at Mingyu's push and the two lanky adults beside him almost come tumbling out of the closet if they didn't catch themselves in time. They curse Mingyu in their heads and look at each other, silently agreeing – swearing – they'll get back at the bulky alpha someday.

They bring their heads up to identify wherever they had ended up, to see whole rows of clothes on racks and display tables of accessories. Except, the clothes aren’t actually clothes. They are just holograms of clothes on hangers. Now that they are able to look closely, _every_ item is just holograms.

"What is this, a d-department store?" Mingyu asks as he steps down from the closet.

"Looks like it," the omega replies as he taps a few commands on his wristwatch.

“Kinda expected since we rode a closet here, huh?” Mingyu says, more to himself as he looks around.

Mingyu walks over to one of the jackets on the rack and picks it up, the hologram immediately hugging his body and dresses him in the jacket. He snaps his head to the mirror in front of him to see the hanger in his hand empty, and the jacket on his body – still a hologram. He freaks out and tries to pry the jacket of his body, only to freak out further when he can actually feel the texture of the fabric but his hands just go through the image projected around his body.

He yelps and quickly returns the hanger to the rack, looking at the hologram jacket draping itself back onto the hanger and off his body. The tall alpha brings his hands together as he squeezes them to himself, terrified of what just happened.

Hansol and Wonwoo didn’t even notice, busy discussing and tapping away at their watches.

"Is this really the futu- WHOAH!" as Mingyu was scanning around, something flew across above his head. He ducks instinctively as the piece of contraption lowers itself in front of them.

The piece of metal that looks like a flying saucer shifts and morphs. In less than a second a robotic head pops up and the rest of the block stretches into a torso. It quiets for a second and Mingyu forgets to breathe, until it pokes out two short stubby legs hovering off the ground, Mingyu screams.

“Welcome to Diamond Edge Mall. Please allow me to assist you in your purchase, I am your trusty shopping assistant, Bong-”

“Still can’t believe the name is Bong,” Wonwoo snorts.

“Yeah, the guys at department 9 are so weird,” Hansol agrees calmly as the floating mecha, Bong, continues reciting all available services in that monotonous robotic voice, with only Mingyu paying attention albeit terrified of what just unfolded in front of his eyes.

This _is_ the future then!

“How are you guys not freaking out?!” the alpha cowers behind Wonwoo, which is ridiculous because he is too tall to just squeeze his shoulders together and think he is actually hidden behind the smaller omega.

“You’re kidding, right? We have this back home too. There’s a working prototype in the Consortium café. Maybe not as advanced but it’s about the same, hovers and stuff,” the beta states.

Wonwoo nods, “It does seem like it’s got a little more speed and agility to it, glides smooth too, so maybe...” the man hums as he calculates in his mind, “-a few years? This model is probably from the ‘57s though. Looking at the materials. Are you not, Bong?”

The mecha turns in mid-air to properly face the trio, “Correct, I am Bong v4. Manufactured; by Diamond Edge Consortium, year two-eight-five-seven. Latest software update; two-eight-six-five. Update history; debugging-”

"Come on let's head out to Jun's location," Wonwoo says as he walks off, with the machine continuing to read its list of updates and problems in the background.

The other two trailing behind the omega as Mingyu jumps each time the mecha turns to greet them again and bid them farewell.

“Kinda poor motion sensor process though.”

🍭

“Should be around here?” The omega says as he nudges the button on the side of his helmet, shutting down the overlay map displayed on the visor.

“Is Jun-hyung here?” Mingyu perks up behind.

They have been walking for about 20 minutes, following the coordinates they had received from Junhui. Seeing how the comms on Junhui’s side are a little damaged from the previous voyage, he couldn’t access his path trajectory so they decided to go to him instead.

The coordinates he gave them led them to a metallic building shaping like a half-dome. Lined with strips of gold and red aluminum panels curving across the entire form, encompassing the building like strands of hair caught in the wind. It was so abstract they weren’t sure where the entrance was at first.

“Guys!” a voice broke their haze of admiring the odd architecture.

Mingyu was the first to turn his direction towards the alpha walking towards them, “Jun-hyung!!” He ran towards the slim alpha and gave him a bear hug, “You’re not dead, hyung!!”

“I literally just texted you guys,” Junhui chuckles as Mingyu releases him from the elder.

“Don’t mind him, he doesn’t even know what’s going on anyway. Glad to see you’re still in one piece though,” Wonwoo says as he punches Junhui in the shoulders.

“You really shouldn’t have strayed away, Jun. Not cool,” Hansol speaks, a little annoyed.

The alpha snickers before grabbing one of Hansol’s arm and hugging it, “Were you worried about me, Hansolie~~”

Hansol didn’t even respond and just shrugged Junhui off.

“Seriously though, it was a whole week on our side. How are you holding up? Where’s your helme-OH... don’t tell me-” Wonwoo hiccups.

“Yup! Traded it in for some moolas,” Junhui says excitedly, and continues before Wonwoo could freak out further, “Check out their money system now though,” he brings up his left wrist to show a silver band running across the side, so thin it looks like tattoo on his skin.

“Oh my gosh! Is that-” Hansol unbelievably perks up, to Mingyu’s surprise.

“Yup. Cellular multi genetic-information transmitter tech,” the alpha smiles widely before taking out a piece of paper from the pocket of his jacket.

A glossy A5 brochure of some sort with the prints detailing on the tech and all its perks, but all eyes focused on the backside of the card where the triangle logo similar to the ones they have on their gear is plastered right-and-center. Everyone but Junhui gasped and right below the symbol, a text that can’t be missed; _Designed by Vernon_.

Junhui snickers while giving Hansol a pat on the back, “I think you managed to figure it out.”

Hansol visibly brightens at the statement from Junhui. Mingyu heard about how the young beta had been in a slump for one of his big projects for weeks now. Seungkwan complains about how his boyfriend would get – impossibly – more expressionless and just outright disregard anyone who steps into the room when he’s working on said project.

Mingyu guesses the beta probably worked it out in the future and manage to complete the project then. A smile creeps its way onto his face seeing how a little more determined the beta had looked stumbling upon the fact that he had incredible news waiting for him in the future.

Maybe it was a good thing after all, going to the future. _Knowing the future._

“I won’t let you study mine though,” Junhui remarks with a little smile as he brings his hand to his back, away from Hansol.

The beta just smirks, “Whatever, I’ll figure it out myself anyway.”

“Hey, I still can’t believe you sold the helmet I made!” Wonwoo interrupts, suddenly remembering the fact that the alpha had sold his creation.

“I need to survive, man! It’s been three weeks on my side! And thank the lord it was a limited release item they said, so it’s considered an _antique_. They gave me three million for it-”

“Fuck! You serious?!” Mingyu squealed.

Junhui nodded furiously and Wonwoo just hit his arm.

“You think I didn’t know that? The value goes up after the years. Why do you think I collect these helmets?! Man, and that was one of the nice ones too.”

“You already kind of ruined it with these tapes and holes you drilled for the tubes, hyung,” Mingyu whispers loudly, cupping one of his hand to his mouth.

“Shut up, Gyu!” the omega rolls his eyes. “How are you going to get back without an oxygen mask, huh?” he turns his annoyance towards Junhui again.

“Gosh you _tsundere_ , pretending like you didn’t prepare a spare for me~ Huuu~” the slim alpha brings himself closer towards the omega, wiggling himself around him, taunting the slightly shorter male.

Wonwoo snorts, “Jokes on you _bitch_ , we didn’t.”

“Oh, c’mon you don’t need to keep up this cold act of yours-”

“We really didn’t bring one, Jun,” the beta blond says.

Junhui straightens up at that, “Really?”

He turns to Mingyu and the other alpha nods slowly.

“We tore one open to test the comms and the last one we had is on Mingyu’s head,” Hansol continues.

Junhui slumps his shoulders and steps impossibly closer to the omega who has his hands crossed on his chest.

“Wonu~~~~~~~~” the alpha whines.

Mingyu feels a sort of feeling growing in his chest at the sight of Junhui all up in his crush’s space. He disregards it and takes a step closer towards the omega, just for _precaution (?)_ in case he gets too close and Wonwoo feels uncomfortable, so he can fling Junhui right off his favorite hyung at any time.

“Shut up idiot, you know we have to make one now because of this,” Wonwoo groans. “Seungcheol-hyung, you caught everything, right?”

“Yup,” the voice in their ears unmuted to a laughing Seungcheol. “Alright, I’ll recalibrate, but at most I can drag it out before the quartz reactivates is five hours, my time. So maybe less than two on yours. I’m doing this remotely too, so might be less. I’ll get back to you when I have more concrete timeframe.”

“Great. Should be plenty if we can get the stuff within this hour,” the omega states as he punches in a new alarm on the watch. “I hope you spend the weeks well enough that you know your way around here, Wen.”

Junhui smirks, “Of course!”

The boys took off their helmets and are stripped of their leather jacket to blend a little with their surroundings. Thankfully the fashion of the year 2865 is not too different from their own.

There’re crazy hair colors everywhere – neon yellow, shades of highlighter green color, neon yellow and highlighter green stripes on one head too – but that isn’t really new. That one guy from department 9 probably had spotted a color like that on his hair before.

Junhui walked them into the abstract building they saw earlier which turns out to be a _mall_ of some sort. The mall system in this future is hardly any different from their times, other than the fact that everything is sold in holograms. A means of security so that the items will only be materialized upon payment.

Mingyu let his mouth gape open in awe and asks if such tech has been in development in their times too. The three boys shrugged that maybe it was but it wasn’t on their radar and maybe it’ll pop up some time soon.

They walk past a few stores and Mingyu jumped again at the sight of one of those Bong bots greeting him when he passes by a store. Sticking close to Wonwoo while still whipping his head around like a lost puppy.

The omega doesn’t say anything at the adorable expression the alpha has on but maybe he lets the younger tug on his t-shirt as they walk along. _Such a puppy._

“The ones on the ground floor up are the typical mall stuff,” Junhui explains. “The _real_ stuff, for us, is down below,”

They turn a corner to a hallway leading towards a grand set of stairs. The stairs bring them down to the lower floors, albeit similar looking to the ones above, the stores carry actual items. And not normal items, loot items. Metal scraps and finds. _Antiques._

The foot traffic down here is much less crowded than the ones above. If the floors above are filled with teenagers and young adults in their leisure time, the floors below are filled with the more elderly side of the population.

It makes sense, the older generations probably prefer the original way of purchase, where actual items are involved and actual cash is being traded. That doesn’t mean there are no youngsters in this part of the malls, there are still a lot of them, casually browsing items and bringing them up to the counter to ring them up.

It brings a sort of joy to the alpha to see how the people interact and them still maintaining the warmth of human connection despite the massive advances of technology surrounding them. He wonders whether it’s all thanks to human’s ability to adapt to their needs of real human interaction, or whether it’s their relentlessness to accepting technology to fully integrate into their lives.

Either way, he thinks the Consortium did a good job of maintaining a balance between the generation.

Mingyu sighs. _Great! Now he needs to write a theoretical research paper on that when he gets back or it’ll never leave his mind._

“I think we can get a helmet there?” Junhui pointed at a biker’s store a few doors from the loot store where they had just exited.

They had managed to gather everything else in their list to build that makeshift oxygen mask helmet for Junhui and was heading towards their last stop; to get the actual helmet.

“Why are these so expensive?” Junhui groans as he picks up the helmet they had settled on; a bright pink one. They settled on it, not because of the color – maybe yes, to taunt Junhui a little – but the overall agility of the helmet to ensure it’ll able to withstand the vacuum-ished conditions of their jump.

“Oh, shut up, it’s a quarter of the cost of that helmet you pawned!” Wonwoo retorts as he takes the helmet off the man’s hand and settles it on the counter.

Junhui brings up his wrist for the cashier to scan before the bell chimed, signaling the entrance sliding open and another customer entering the premises.

The cashier greets without looking up from entering their purchase, “Welcome t-”

"Dad?" The customer that had just walked in looked towards the counter.

Wonwoo moves slightly to the side to let the boy’s line of sight land on the designated person possibly somewhere behind him instead of himself.

He turned to the boy who was still looking his way, he seemed young. Maybe high school? Around sixteen? The boy smells like an alpha, but with very, very familiar notes in his scent. He was wearing a white denim jacket and matching white jeans, looking clean and sleek. He was tall too. Carrying a worn white helmet on his arms.

_Funny, that helmet looks so much like that one helmet he has at home._

"Hey, Dad?" the alpha boy says. His head tilting a little as his gaze is still fixed towards Wonwoo’s way. The omega shifts again to the side, trying to not be in the way but the boy’s eyes follow him.

Not just the boy, everyone else in the store, the cashier, Junhui, Mingyu and Hansol’s were on him too.

Why are they looking at him? _Wait_. He looks around the store and notices there’s no one else in the store except them. There’s no one behind him too.

_What?_

"Dad, what are you doing here? I thought you were supposed to be at the parade already," the boy walks closer towards the counter, now eyes absolutely locked on Wonwoo’s.

The omega stutters as he returned the boy’s gaze, "Ar-Are you talking to me?"

"Yeah, _dad_ ,” the boy emphasizes the last word as he smiles a little, showing off what seems like one of his canines peeking out a little between his lips, “And what- are you wearing?" he eyes Wonwoo up and down.

Mingyu gasps loudly, finally getting it, now bringing everyone’s attention to him. It just dawned on him that it's Wonwoo’s kid! _From the future!_

The omega is speechless. His mouth gapes open at the sight of the (maybe) 16-year-old looking boy standing across the counter from him, calling him his father. _Is this really the fruit of my loins?!_

The boy was good-looking. He shares Wonwoo's feature, strong brows and a pointy nose that somewhat scrunches up when he smiles. He almost thinks he's looking into a mirror and he mentally pats himself in the back for having contributed to creating such fine specimen. And the boy carries a prominent secondary note in his scent, he’s confident it’s lavender, just like _him_.

He was going to cry from feeling so touched when Mingyu finally waddled his way closer and leaned in to whisper - although his whisper is more like a normal speaking voice, considering how loud the alpha is, "I think it's your kid, hyung!" stating the obvious.

Then the kid's brows raise as he turns to Mingyu, causing him to gulp a little as the round pair of eyes that is incredibly familiar to him opens his mouth to speak again.

"What are you talking about, Dad?" the kid says, now eyes locked on Mingyu’s.

_Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm?_

"Hm?" Mingyu hums, questioning.

The boy looks a little baffled as he walks a few steps closer and leans in towards the duo, making sure that they really understand that he’s talking to them and not anyone else.

"I'm _your_ kid too?" he spells out.

_Hm?_

_Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm?_

Mingyu remembers passing out.

Okay, maybe he didn’t pass out completely. He fell to the ground and had his eyes closed for a couple of seconds before Wonwoo slapped his cheeks telling him to get up. Everyone hovering above him, including the alpha boy who had a bemused look on his face, as if he’s used to Mingyu’s shenanigans.

Wonwoo stood up and sighed, with his hands on his hips. It made sense. That other familiar scent that Wonwoo caught were notes from Mingyu’s scent, that strong fresh citrus scent lingering on the young alpha too. The round eyes that look just like Mingyu’s own. That singular canine- Gosh.

Junhui squat down to help hoist the giant alpha up to his feet, knowing no one else would have the strength to do so. He loops Mingyu’s arm on his shoulders, dragging him out the store leaving Hansol to carry all their luggage.

Feeling perplexed and a little curious, Wonwoo decided to invite the kid outside for a ‘talk’, so now they are waiting on the bench, in the courtyard outside of the mall.

The young alpha said he needed to send in the helmet he was holding for a repaint so he’ll be right out and meet them there.

And if Wonwoo noticed his initial, _JW_ , on the back of the helmet the kid was hugging to his chest, he didn’t say anything and just gulped down the rest of his thoughts.

“Hey! Sorry if I took too long,” the kid finally appears as he jogs his way up to the four awfully quiet men lounging around the bench. Mingyu just sitting all sprawled in the middle of the bench, staring into nothing. Probably too much information for him to digest. Wonwoo occupying an end of it and Hansol sitting on the armrest. Junhui just standing in front of them so he turns towards the boy first.

“Not at all,” Junhui says with a smirk in his face as his eyes meet Wonwoo’s, “So, your dads, huh?”

The omega swears right there, a side of him wants to not finish up the oxygen mask for Junhui and let him stay here. Who knows what will happen to him but screw him anyway.

“So, I- um, called my dad, he answered,” the alpha boy says, “-so... you guys aren’t from here- this particular timeframe, are you?” he offers a small smile.

Wonwoo hits Mingyu’s thighs to tell him to scoot over, making room for the boy to sit between them. Mingyu jumps and folds himself as small as he could as the boy happily settles between his two ‘dads’.

“Well, my name is Minwoo. Kim Minwoo,” the alpha boy begins as he turns to his sides to look at both Mingyu and Wonwoo.

Mingyu looks somewhat deranged with his gaze focusing into nothing and his mouth agape. The omega tries his very best to look composed and ignore the inner turmoil within.

Minwoo looks at his dads again before bursting into a feat of laughter. Once again exposing that one-sided canine and scrunch of the nose. Mingyu and Wonwoo both getting goosebumps as they get an image of their characteristics being embodied by one person in front of them.

“Wow, you totally look like both your dads,” Junhui snorts. Hansol nods silently, in awe.

“You say that a lot Uncle Jun,” the boy turns to face the alpha whose face is morphing into a look of amusement.

“No way! I’m an uncle!” Junhui exclaims, “Wait, do I have kids too??”

The boy just nods, “He’s a little younger than me, Wen Minghui. He’s in China though.”

Junhui was so ecstatic he was spitting out incoherent nonsense in a language neither Chinese nor Korean, “Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Minghui?! My wife? How about her? Is she pretty??”

“Hmm... pretty-” Minwoo hums before continuing with a chuckle, “but husband.”

At that Junhui freezes at the fact that he had just been outed probably years too early for himself.

The rest of them just laughs at the look on the alpha’s face. Hansol pats the man on his shoulders, “You shouldn’t have asked if you weren’t ready for this sort of answer, Jun.”

Junhui swallows a pout and turns to Hansol with a furrow in his brows, “Shut it, Hansol! What about him then?” Junhui retorts and points towards the blonde beta.

“With Uncle Seungkwan? Happy as ever,” the alpha boy turns towards Hansol, “I’m best friends with Hanseung and Hankwan too,”

“Who’s that?”

“Your twins.”

“T-twins? I have twins?”

“Versol is turning two this year though. She’s so smart-”

“V-Versol? T-three? I have three-” Hansol blinks, eyes wide. This is the first time Mingyu’s seeing Hansol with this much expression in his face throughout his whole friendship with him.

The young alpha shakes his head at that, “Oh no, there’re others. Ve-”

“Nope! No! N-nope! I do _not_ need to know this now...” he exhales, flailing his hands, stopping the boy from finishing his sentence.

Mingyu laughs at Hansol’s ‘extreme’ reaction. Seeing how the man never reacts much and was flailing his arms as such. But before he could really get into his good laugh the alpha boy turns to Wonwoo.

_Oh no._

“So, have you guys mated?” he asks, to Wonwoo as if that was a normal question you ask on a daily basis like a greeting or a _how are you_.

The omega turns as red as a tomato with his mouth hung open but his words stuck in his throat, “A- I- Wh-” he tries his best to avoid any eye contact with Mingyu facing him.

Mingyu coughs and hits his chest to calm down. He gulps. Him mating with Wonwoo... Oh boy, he’s going to start having dreams about that now. He went from really realizing his crush for the omega in less than an hour ago to thinking of how the omega would look like... underneath him... in bed... those eyes looking at him... with want... and the sounds- oh the sounds Wonwoo would make-

Slap!

Mingyu slaps himself before he could go any further. He brings both his hands to his face and screams.

“Oh... I’m sorry. I guess you haven’t,” the boy looks down to fiddle with the hem of his shirt, “You guys are still pretty early on then,”

The boy hums before continuing, “I’m sorry if it sounds really intimate but for as long as I lived, you guys are like, _really_ really clingy all the time and you basically tell me everything so, yeah... And I think I remember Dad telling me you guys were already together on your first voyage. Hm... maybe not then?”

Mingyu was frozen in his spot.

“O-okay maybe we should stop talking about this,” Wonwoo says before pursing his lips. Shrugging off all the thoughts he might have in his head before continuing, “Maybe tell us about you, M-Minwoo.” Wonwoo stutters, a bit awkward to say the name of his _son_.

“Okay,” Minwoo nods, “I’m-”

Wonwoo interrupts, “Just!” He breathes out, calming himself before continuing, “Don’t tell us your age, I- yeah...”

The young alpha nods again but with a smile this time, “Sure.”

Minwoo proceeds to tell them he’s still in school but the schools in their time revolve around current topical interests, something like picking up a university major, but the majors change based on the latest market needs and demands. So he’s majoring in astrophysics, specifically asteroid research, with special interest in Rose Quartz-X to honor the steps his fathers walked.

Mingyu gasped again upon the mention of the illegal gemstone but the young alpha explains that Quartz-X has been legalized for research and development purposes a couple of years back. Of course, all under the efforts of Seungcheol’s team, and at that, he smiles warmly at the three engineers around him. _Another ‘good’ news from the future._

When Mingyu protests to the boy about how dangerous the Quartz is, Minwoo looks at the man funny and asks if he doesn’t know how they – Seungcheol’s team – discovered the method to stabilize the Quartz. Mingyu shakes his head and the young alpha just nods to himself, shrugs off the tall alpha when he bugs him for an answer, telling him he’ll find out later. Mingyu catches Wonwoo smiling to himself as he turns away.

🍭

“Okay, so remember. I’m bringing you in but you shouldn’t touch anything else you don’t need. My dad is a total clean freak, he _will_ know you have taken something but he wouldn’t like it if he knew your hands were on anything else,” Minwoo briefed the boys outside as they walked past the gates to his home before halting right in front of the door.

“Which one though?” Junhui asked as he let out a chuckle.

Minwoo smiles before bringing his index finger up slowly and Mingyu tries to move further away from the way the finger is pointing at. But it wasn’t towards him after all, Minwoo pointed towards Wonwoo.

“Wonwoo is a clean freak?” Junhui asks, sounding confused. “He totally ate up that piece of macaroon he dropped on the floor the other day though, didn’t he?” he turns to Hansol.

Hansol just shrugs.

Mingyu thinks to himself, didn’t he give Wonwoo a box of macaroons the other day from that good place.

Wonwoo protests, “Hey, I am a clean person! That was spe- a one-time thing. It was just because those macaroons were hard to get!”

“Ah...” Junhui nods slowly. “Yes, hard to get from _who?_ ” Junhui snickers before pointing at Mingyu instead before any of them could respond to his previous statement, “I thought it would be you. Weren’t you the clean-up guy in our group?” the slim alpha turned to the taller alpha this time.

Mingyu shrugs also.

Junhui hums, “He probably rubbed off on you or something, you know what they say, mates pick-up on each other’s traits,” Junhui leaned in close enough to whisper in Wonwoo’s ear.

Mingyu coughed upon hearing Junhui’s words. It wasn’t meant for him to hear but he was standing close to Wonwoo as usual so it was inevitable.

The sound of the door unlocking upon Minwoo’s verification stops Wonwoo before he could turn to the slim alpha and physically choke him to death.

They were currently taking a detour to collect some extras that will make the makeshift easier, from Wonwoo’s garage at his ‘future’ home. A small, cozy-looking gabled roof home, with a beautiful large garden of flowers and tiny fountains, offsetting a couple of meters surrounding the white brick walls. The house looked really simple, but Mingyu is sure it has a lot more going on inside if he knew himself well.

They walked through the door and Mingyu nods to himself. He (his future self) definitely did good. The interior looked way more spacious than he’d expected. He knew he would want a home that stairs into the ground instead of up, so that was exactly it.

The ground floor seemed minimalist with comfy looking couches in the living room on one end, and an island with adjacent sparkly squeaky-clean looking marble-counter cabinets lining the kitchen walls on the other. Right at the edge of the room was a stairway leading them down.

They descend and the lower ground was double the size. Another huge living room, another kitchen and a hallway leading to rooms that he guesses would either be Minwoo’s or spare rooms. And maybe even the master bedroom.

The one that he would share with...

Wonwoo.

He gulps as he steals a glance at Wonwoo who is admiring the architecture of the home. Mingyu smiles to himself knowing that he did that. Well his future self maybe but, nevertheless.

“Oh wow, even your house is like a secret lair,” the slim alpha walks around with his hands behind his back, almost like he’s inspecting the place.

“I think you say that every time you come here, Uncle Junhui. It’s like a habit and Minghui is picking up on it too,” Minwoo laughs as he leads them down the hallway to another set of stairs. “Dad’s workroom is down here. Since you _are_ him, I’m sure you can find what you need yourself? I actually need to run down to the parade now. Dad will give me a long lecture if I’m late.”

Junhui brightens upon hearing the opportunity to poke fun at them again, “Whi-”

Mingyu interrupts Junhui with a monotonous tone, “Before you ask him which dad, I’m sure it’s me.”

Minwoo giggles, “Yeah. The lecture dad.”

The tall alpha sighs and nods to himself.

“You’ve been mentioning the parade, what’s that about?” Hansol finally speaks after all this while.

The young alpha’s face turned into a look of pure joy as he motions for them to come over to a wall behind them. A bunch of framed photographs on the otherwise bare wall, and a large bookshelf draping the entire wall for a good five meters. All pouring with books and files.

Upon further inspection, Mingyu realizes they are albums, rows of blueprints and hundreds, maybe thousands of theses. Correction; _his_ theses. He’d recognized some titles he’d been working on.

Mingyu gawked at the shelves. He’d written _that_ much across the 20 years?

“Talk about workaholic,” Wonwoo says quietly beside him.

Suddenly it downs on Mingyu, how much longer is he going to be at his job? If he’s spent so much of his time writing this much then how much of his time has he spent _actually_ on himself.

Mingyu knows he has a problem. He’s always working. It’s not his fault his work is mainly operational anywhere there is a keyboard, so he’s constantly at present with his work. Now really looking at it, he’s trembling a little. How much more does he have to write? Will he ever stop? Is he still working that much now? He should be only 48, he can’t be retired so he must still be working.

The thought of having his life basically chained with working for the Consortium his entire life has never come across as terrifying as it does now.

Minwoo is telling the origin story of the annual parade in the background, but Mingyu isn’t listening. He saw Minwoo took out a picture from one of the bigger albums but he tuned out right after.

His mind is flooded with, _information._ Too many thoughts running around in his mind. Hesitance, uncertainty, and doubt all fighting for dominance in his brain. He’s going to have an anxiety attack soon if he doesn’t calm down.

He’s starting to have trouble breathing now. He was about to lose it before he feels it. He smells it.

And the certain warmth radiating on his left arm, warming up his insides as it spread and squeezed his heart in his chest. And lavender.

Wonwoo.

He’s giving out his scent, trying to calm Mingyu down again.

It works. He feels better. His heart is still close to exploding out of his chest but his mind is a little clearer.

Mingyu focuses his eyes on the pair of orbs looking at him. The same pair that had carried the galaxy in them earlier. The flickers and colors weren’t there anymore but it was all the same. Still drowning and magnetizing.

Wonwoo’s face came into focus and his worried gaze broke Mingyu’s heart a little.

“Are you okay, Min? I can smell worry off of you,” Wonwoo says softly. Mingyu only now realized the warmth he’d felt on his left hand was the elder’s own. Slightly pressing against his.

 _Min_ was a nickname Wonwoo had sometimes called Mingyu whenever they texted. It was in all honesty just Wonwoo being lazy to type out his whole name, but it stuck and he uses it sometimes, but Wonwoo never calls him that out of text.

_Mingyu’s heart leaps out of his chest, takes a bus to Changwon and decides to never come back._

The tall alpha feels his heart not calming down but rather speeding up, he steps back so that his back is leaning against the wall, crouching slightly, facing the massive bookcase.

With the shelves that carry his entire life’s works. His mind goes numb again.

Only then has Mingyu realized that it was just the two of them. The others are gone. Was he hallucinating?

“Calm down,” Wonwoo whispers as he brings down his hand and holds Mingyu’s in his tighter. “The others are out to the parade, it’s just me here.”

Mingyu nods slightly and brings his free hand, one that isn’t occupied by the warmth of Wonwoo’s, to his head and puts pressure on his temples.

They stay like that for a couple of minutes before Mingyu finally calms down enough to speak.

“How long was I out?”

“Quite a while actually. I thought you were just looking at your works but you didn’t even respond to me calling out to you,” Wonwoo explains as he drew circles on the back of Mingyu’s hand.

Wonwoo is now also leaning against the wall beside Mingyu, who’s still just staring at the books on the shelves. “Kind of scary, isn’t it? Knowing what you’re capable of doing.”

Mingyu sighs before he takes a huge breath of air and closes his eyes.

“I don’t know. I-” he bites his lips. “Hyung, I...”

Wonwoo pushes himself off the wall to stand properly now in front of Mingyu, eyes trained on him, “What is it?”

"Should I-" Mingyu stutters a little, "like I don't know, I mean I know I should be taking this positively or something. But I... this feels horrible."

He sounds hesitant and his voice comes out so small. His heart still pounding out of his chest and he’s not sure if it’s because Wonwoo’s hand is on him or it’s just his anxiety.

“I get you...” Wonwoo replies, quiet.

Mingyu continues, with a voice that sounds so strained that it’s as if he would breakdown into tears if he says it any louder, "I’m supposed to be happy, right? That we might be bound to a good storyline in our path, sort of, I guess... but this-"

“Hey, it’s okay. You just haven’t had the time to process everything yet. It was the same when we first jumped too, we saw a lot of things we weren’t prepared for,” the elder says calmly. “You’ll see soon, the future is just the future. Like your past, it’s something you can accept or, well just choose to ignore.”

Mingyu brings his hands out of Wonwoo’s grip, something he didn’t know his whipped soul was spiritually capable of doing. But he does so anyway and pushes himself off the wall to look at Wonwoo properly.

The tall alpha shakes head, "So what are you suggesting? That we date? Be together, because it’s going happen _anyway_?"

“What? I didn’t say that.” Wonwoo says, a little surprised.

“Well, it sure sounds like you did. ‘Accept your fate’, really?” Mingyu scoffs.

“Don’t twist my words Mingyu. I only said that you should look at everything going on here as a prospect. A possibility. You can look at this as an end result or a variable to a change. Just take it as a _normal expectation_ or _future goals_ or something, I don’t know.”

Mingyu doesn’t get it, why is Wonwoo fine with this. This shouldn’t feel right to anyone at all.

"Well, this isn't normal, hyung! Dating with the prospect of marriage is a thing, dating with the confirmed fact of an offspring just waiting to live its full extraordinary life upon being born, sort of _isn't,_ isn’t it?”

“Can you not talk like I’m not part of the storyline here? Do you think I don’t feel the same way? The pressure is something else, I get it, the emotional confusion is mutual Mingyu. Which is why I’m telling you if you don’t like it you can just fucking ignore it.”

“What?!” Mingyu suddenly says, stern.

“I’m telling you if you’re so against going along with this storyline then you can get off it. It’s easy we can just stop talking after this and everything would be called off since you’re so worked up about this!”

“Wonwoo!” Mingyu says a little louder, angrier this time. It’s almost as if he’s letting his alpha voice take charge and Wonwoo is taken aback.

Mingyu bites his lips to shut himself up and takes a step back to distance himself from the omega. Letting their secondary gender take control here won’t make things end well.

They stay quiet for a good minute, letting their inner selves calm down. Wonwoo rubs his head and brings himself in front of the bookcase to grab one of the hardbound thesis. Absentmindedly flipping through the pages while he talked.

"Remember when I was briefing you about this trip the other day? And I had said to you that you may or may not discover something that you dread happening. That it’s like, having the possibility of your fate against you?"

“Yeah, and I said I didn’t get it.”

“Well, do you now?” Wonwoo turns his head so Mingyu could only catch a glimpse of his profile. He’d look as torn as Mingyu felt.

“During our first voyage we discovered something,” the omega says, still playing with the pages of the thesis.

Mingyu tries to drown the loud beating of his heart to focus on the words of omega in front of him.

“We got to snoop around the Consortium. And you know the memorial grounds near the gardens at the edge of the facility?”

Mingyu nods even though Wonwoo can’t see him.

“We saw Jeonghan-hyung’s name on one of the stones there.”

Jeonghan? He means...

“ _Our_ Jeonghan-hyung,” Wonwoo says softly. “Seungcheol-hyung’s Jeonghan.”

“W-what?” was the only thing Mingyu could work out to say.

“He’ll meet with an accident at department 9’s lab in five years.”

_What? No! This isn’t what he wants to hear!!_

“Why are you telling me this hyung?!” Mingyu suddenly realizes of the backup comms they have installed on their watch and panics as he tries to cover his hand, “Does Seungcheol-hyu-”

“He knows. He sees what we see through the visor and we were wearing them there.”

Mingyu grits his teeth and shakes his head, stopping himself from getting too emotional that he maybe end up crying, “So what now? What do we do? What should we do to protect Jeonghan-hyung?!” Mingyu says in a rush as he scrambles to grab Wonwoo’s arms, shaking him a little, causing the book in his hand to drop.

They both watch as the book hit both their feet. The impact bouncing it from one to the other before settling right between the tips of both their shoes.

Wonwoo says so quietly again that it comes out as a whisper, “We’re not doing anything.”

“What? Why?!” Mingyu almost yells.

“What do you mean why? It’s bound to happen one way or the other. Everyone knows you can’t fight with fate. Even if we say we’ll try and change it who knows what will happen, so the first step we can take is only acceptance.” Wonwoo stares right into Mingyu’s eyes, making his throat go a little dry.

“You guys are so smart,” Mingyu lets go of Wonwoo before he stands a little straighter and pierces his gaze through Wonwoo’s own, “But so dumb.”

Wonwoo shakes his head and furrows his brow, not getting where Mingyu is going.

"First of all, why are a bunch of engineers being so unscientific with your reasonings. Shouldn’t you be calculating possibilities and, I don’t know, figure out a formula thing to successfully mend what shouldn’t happen? Isn't that the concept of the voyage, hyung?" he continues. “You said it yourself, you’re going against fate. Then why _shouldn’t_ we take any chances to change it? The purpose of going to the future _is_ to change the future isn’t it?”

Wonwoo brings his gaze to the floor, finding Mingyu’s own too much for him to match against.

"No, it’s not. Our aim to go to the future was to _win over_ any arguments _over_ fate. We want to know what is possible, how it is possible, prove it is possible and make it possible. We are not here to change the timeline of the universe.”

Mingyu scoffs before he brings his eyes back to drilling holes in Wonwoo’s head.

“Fine then. Let’s be together,” Mingyu says serious and Wonwoo brings his face up to look at the alpha with a look of hurt. “Since there’s a _whole household_ full of proof of that ‘possibility’ then we should be making it happen, am I right hyung?”

“That’s...” the omega returns his gaze to their feet and clasps his hands together. Mingyu was starting to sound a little too harsh and it was the elder’s turn to be anxious. “I don’t mean it like that...”

“What do you mean, hyung? You said yourself. So now when the answer lies right here why can't you accept it for it is? Hmm?"

"That's a whole different aspect of the issue... I-"

"What's different about it hyung? This is so ironic, hyung? You told me your aim to go to the future was so that you could, let me put it as, making the future possible," he steps a step closer so now he’s towering over the omega with his height. “Then let’s make it possible, hyung!”

“It’s already written, isn’t it? Just fucking be mine then, hyung! Submit!” the alpha makes his voice a little sharper. He’s not using his alpha voice but it sounds a lot close.

“Mingyu!!” Wonwoo almost yells, his eyes wide as he faces the alpha with a look of disbelief.

"What, hyung?” the tall omega scoffs. “Why are you so against it?"

"Why do you sound like you're not?"

 _Because I like you. I probably love you too_.

The answer is stuck behind his throat.

Only then does Mingyu realize he was raising his voice and basically sizing up against the smaller omega.

He immediately takes a step back and swallows. He drops his eyes to Wonwoo’s to see them trembling a little.

 _Oh no._ _What has he done?_

“Wonwoo-hyung,” he reaches out to slowly unclasp Wonwoo’s tightly clenched fist, one finger at a time before lacing their finger together, “I’m sorry. I- I can’t believe I just did that.”

The elder visibly calms down a little. He doesn’t seem too shaken and Mingyu didn’t use his alpha voice anyway. It was just a hint of anxiousness mixed with a whole lot of confusing emotions.

“I’m fine, really. It’s okay, you didn’t do anything to me.” He gives Mingyu a slight squeeze in his hand to show that he’s fine.

“Are you sure?” the alpha says, voice laced with concern and his eyes searching for the omega’s.

Wonwoo brings his eyes to meet with the alpha’s and gives him a smile before removing Mingyu’s hand from his grip.

The tall alpha was least to say, disappointed, to have the hands out of his grip but before he could even react, the elder’s arms reach up to snake around his neck in a tight hold. Pulling Mingyu down slightly that his head is now resting on the side of the omega’s head.

He feels Wonwoo’s chin digging onto his right collarbone as he finds purchase there.

Mingyu is startled but he definitely feels relieved. He doesn’t know if it’s the omega pheromones or it’s just Wonwoo, but the scent and the warmth are serene.

They kept pulling each other closer, Wonwoo’s arms around Mingyu’s neck and the taller’s around and over the omega’s waist and back. Both tugging into each other’s fabrics as if there was still distance between them. Absorbing and yielding into the comfort of their embrace.

Mingyu has never felt quite the warmth he does now. Be it in his body temperature or the feeling in his heart. Wonwoo is really something else. He is the tranquility that Mingyu desires and he wishes he could be the same, if not more for the omega as well.

“I’m sure.”

🍭

“30 minutes. I’ll start counting down and you should start your timer, alright? Are the others with you?” Seungcheol’s voice was heard coming from Wonwoo’s helmet he placed on top of the picnic table.

Wonwoo reaches for the power drill and drills a second hole at the side of the pink helmet for Junhui, “They’re not. I’ll send out a message soon. Timer ready?”

The omega brings his all-powerful multipurpose watch and brings up the most basic application he has on there, the timer, as he readies himself to set an alarm for the entire voyage crew.

“Alright. Counting down. 4, 3, 2, 1-”

“Got it. I’ll reach out again when we’re down to 2 minutes.”

Seungcheol answers, “I’ll be here.”

The omega nods even if Seungcheol couldn’t see and the line cuts off.

He looks back down without even looking off to see what the tall alpha is doing before he sighs.

Mingyu has been pacing back and forth in front of the omega who had been working his magic with the helmet and the other things they picked up. Drilling, cutting and taping. (He says Junhui will get a basic gas mask, no comm, no calibration, no navigation, because they don’t have the parts and also, _screw him_.)

"Spit it out, Mingyu." Wonwoo finally has had enough of the tall piece of Kim Mingyu moving around in his peripheral vision.

They decided to settle on constructing the lacking gear at a picnic area in the park near the establishment where they had ‘parked’ their ‘closet’.

Junhui was still at the parade with Minwoo since, according to Wonwoo (since Mingyu basically tuned out), he wouldn’t stop begging Minwoo to take him there.

Wonwoo says he will personally travel alone to slaughter the alpha if he decides to disappear on them again but the alpha swore he would be back on time because he brought Hansol with him this time.

Hansol didn’t want to follow along obviously but the choice wasn’t his to make when Junhui had basically dragged the beta along the moment Minwoo mentioned that Junhui’s future self and his husband would probably be there. “ _We need to see if we’re still hot in the future man! And I want to see my hot possible husband!” “Not ‘possible’, he ‘is’ your husband.”_

So they left Wonwoo since he says he’s going to makeshift the gear alone anyway. They figured Mingyu’s out of body responses was just him being tired so they left him with Wonwoo.

The alpha stopped in his tracks and looked up with a tilt of his chin before turning back to the ground, this time choosing to let out his fidgety inclinations to kicking on air.

Wonwoo sighs and puts down the pink helmet he has in his hands to the picnic table before stepping out of the bench connected to the wooden furniture. He stands up and walks over to Mingyu who’s now moved to sitting on the grass, with his knees up to his chest and his hands hugging them.

He hears the omega make his way beside him but above all, he smells the scent, the lovely notes engulfing him and if he thinks he has some of his thoughts sorted out, his brains go haywire again. Mingyu buries his face in the space between his knees and chest.

Wonwoo settles beside him and does the same, bringing his knees to his chest too.

They were quiet for a few minutes before Mingyu finally calms down, "I-" he clears his throat a little, tears were starting to form in his eyes and he doesn’t know why. He’s not even sure if it’s tears of happiness or if he’s sad. Is he happy that he _knows_ now that he has a future with his favorite person, or is he sad that he _knows_ his favorite person might be _bound_ to him now? "...don't really know what to say"

Wonwoo hums, "Me too."

They go quiet again before Mingyu finally lifts his head up and turn a little to face the man to his left. Their eyes meet and Mingyu gives Wonwoo the tiniest smile.

The elder replies with the same amount of curve at the corner of his lips, and gives the alpha their ‘usual’. He tilts his head to the side and lifts his brows a little.

Mingyu’s smile breaks into the hugest grin he’s ever put on and nods immediately.

Wonwoo is never immune to the canines and responds with a smile too.

"I'm sorry if you feel uncomfortable, hyung." Mingyu begins again.

"I mean, I wouldn't feel uncomfortable meeting my own child-" Wonwoo stops himself and thinks through, "even if it is consequently yours too..."

Mingyu continues, "from the future..."

"which means I got married to you..." the omega finishes and sighs, "Yeah, this is sort of awkward when you lay it out properly."

"Yeah."

“Yeah...”

“Well,” the alpha brings his knuckle to his chin and poses like he’s thinking hard, “getting pregnant doesn’t mean you’d _have_ to get married first-”

Wonwoo reaches out to shove Mingyu away as hard as he can, which was probably not that hard because the alpha just wobbles back to a sitting position right after with a laugh so loud the omega decides to shove him again. Wonwoo scoffs, “You better not go the fuck there. Minwoo is probably like fifteen so there’s like five years so you better keep that dick to yourself and stay away from me, you asshole-”

“Yours though.”

“What?”

“It would be your assh-”

“Fuck you, Kim Mingyu,” Wonwoo leans to one side to bring his legs up and kick the alpha’s side. Bringing in a stream of laughter mixed with _ouches_ of pain from the younger.

Still laughing, “No, _I’m_ fucking yo-”

“If you finish that sentence, I fucking swear on Seungcheol’s MIT doctorate I will fucking leave you here,” Wonwoo stands to walk off but not before scoffing one last time, thinking of what other curse words he could spur onto the younger without it being horribly returned to himself, “Bad guy!”

Wonwoo probably wanted to sound mean but it just sounded like an adorable sulk and the alpha’s heart wrenches at that. So he just maintains that grin on his face as he stands up to stand up close, physically attaching himself to his favorite hyung. As if nothing’s changed between them.

Wonwoo rolls his eyes and goes back to work.

With Mingyu sitting across him at the table.

_They’ll be okay._

🍭

“I thought you guys were staying,” Wonwoo says sarcastically as he works on the panel inside the closet this time.

They were back in the clothing department store where they had arrived.

A Bong bot casually stands beside the closet and quietly displays every single collection of items they have for this season on its display panel, at the request of Wonwoo, because the robot’s constant question of service was really starting to drive him into the wall.

Mingyu was sitting in the closet with his legs dangling up front, although it’s not really dangling since he’s tall enough that it reaches the ground. But he swings it back and forth anyways.

“No way, I am going to go back and be the cool person that I am! You should’ve seen me Won, I was soooo hot. Like _daddy_ hot. Who would’ve known 49-year-old me would still be this spicy looking,” Junhui pats his own shoulder.

Hansol sighs and just shakes his head as he walks over to the panel outside of the closet, the one Seungcheol had worked on previously.

Minwoo walked over to sit beside Mingyu and his feet dangle a bit because even if he’s tall, he’s still not as tall as Mingyu.

The alpha boy chuckles as he looks down to their legs, “I hope I grow as tall as you, dad,” he says.

“You will. You’re still growing, aren’t you?” Mingyu grins.

The younger alpha looks up at his future father and reaches out with his index finger to touch the corner of Mingyu’s left eye. He chuckles, as if saying how odd it is seeing Mingyu without his wrinkles, looking so much younger.

Mingyu replies with a shy smile.

“The you today would’ve told me to stop growing because he wants to be the tallest in the family so he could protect us or something like that, he says a lot of those,” Minwoo giggles and Wonwoo who was silent behind them let out a snort as well.

The tall alpha pouted and pushes Minwoo playfully, drawing out another streak of laughter from the boy.

Wonwoo finally done with his task steps closer towards them, “I thought you were supposed to be with your parents- your current- your future parents- you know what I mean,” he shrugs off the odd feeling.

Minwoo laughs again, showing his single canine smile, “I said hi to them, greeted Uncle Seungcheol and then I left.”

“What? I thought you said they would be mad if you weren’t there?” Mingyu asks.

The young alpha shakes his head, “I didn’t say that, I said they’d be mad if I was late.”

Mingyu’s brows furrow, showing how he isn’t following.

“They didn’t want me to miss meeting Uncle Seungcheol since the parade is very important to him?”

The taller alpha looks even more confused.

Minwoo turns to Wonwoo for help.

“He missed a lot, yeah,” Wonwoo chuckles before patting the alpha’s shoulder, “I’ll explain to you when we get back, Mingyu.”

“Besides, the ‘future’ you, knows today is technically the first day they met me, so they didn’t want them to miss it, would you?” Minwoo says before his own brows furrow, confused at his own words. “You get the idea.”

Before Mingyu could protest from his lack of comprehension, Junhui interrupts them, “Sorry to, squeeze myself in, this wonderful family conversation but I think it’s time we move?”

Wonwoo nods and steps off the closet, before he could turn to say his farewell to the young alpha he was bulldozed by a human weight and almost tumbled backward if he didn’t catch himself.

Minwoo wrapped his arms around the omega’s middle and buried his nose in Wonwoo’s shoulders.

Mingyu could see Wonwoo’s shock expression literally melt into a look of ultimate fondness as he wraps his arms around Minwoo’s shoulders while patting it softly. Minwoo was only slightly taller than Wonwoo but he managed to somehow make himself look incredibly small and child-like when he folds like that in Wonwoo’s arms. Mingyu could cry right there just from witnessing the incredibly soft scene.

“I’ll see you soon, Dad,” Minwoo whispers before he let go of Wonwoo too quickly for Wonwoo to even process and turned to lunge into Mingyu’s arms next.

The taller alpha coughed out at the impact from the surprisingly strong younger alpha. But he smiles to himself as he returns the hug and squeezes, causing the alpha in his arms to let out a laugh.

“You really need to stop doing that, Dad. This is why dad doesn’t let you hug him to sleep.” Minwoo says before he steps back and walks over to give both Hansol and Junhui hugs as well.

At the young alpha’s words, Mingyu pouts as he attaches himself next to Wonwoo again, “I thought you liked my hugs?”

The omega cleared his throat and pushed the alpha away, making him pout even more.

Hansol still maintained his expressionless expression when the younger alpha hugs him tightly but Mingyu could tell he was happy to be receiving it as well.

“Well, I guess I know where you get your affectionate side from, not the grumpy one of course,” Junhui snickers before getting smacked in the chest by Wonwoo.

Wonwoo clicked his tongue before he walks over to the side panel on the outer part of the closet, “Alright, how are we going to coordinate this?”

“I’ll stay out and manage both the calibrations and switch like last time. You’re doing the initial sequence, right?” Hansol says plainly towards Wonwoo.

Junhui steps in between them, “Wait, shouldn’t I be the one on the outside? I’m better at calibrating than you are so you should be manning the inside switch.”

“Well, it should’ve been you but we are not risking accidentally leaving you again like last time-” Wonwoo retorts.

“Isn’t that the point of you guys bringing in this hulk right here?” Junhui points to Mingyu who was standing quietly to the side with Minwoo. “And what’s the difference, even Hansol could end up accidentally left behind too.”

Wonwoo and Hansol turned to each other, both finding reasons to persuade Junhui in worry that he might face the same thing twice.

“Um,” Minwoo voices, gaining the attention of the four men. “How about I help with calibrating?”

Wonwoo shook his head as he stepped closer to Minwoo, “No way. You know the forcefield around the closet that X generates might end up sucking you in too. Junhui was lucky he wasn’t close enough last time, but if you get sucked into the tunnel, with no protection you’d get ripped apart!”

“Wow, dad. Even 20 years ago you’re still such a worrywart,” the alpha boy laughs as he pats Wonwoo’s right shoulder. He walks over to the panel which contained the Quartz and held his hand out. “I meant I would help out with the X calibration _remotely_ ,” Minwoo says, pulling one of his sleeves back to reveal a slim titanium band around his wrist. A singular tiny piece of the Quartz sitting in the middle of it.

The four men turned their focus on the younger boy, the three mechs’ eyes were wide and curious while Mingyu was just admiring the cool looking bracelet on the boy’s wrist.

Minwoo smirks just a tiny bit as he takes the band off, unbend the piece of metal so that it forms a straight plane – similar that off an ice cream stick but maybe thinner. He snaps the band vertically in half and pulls them apart. As a bluish light begins to glow between them, a hologram screen began unfolding itself in the blue light, dragging out from each end. He brings the screen out to about the size of an iPad (in lowly 21st century terms) and the whole thing snaps solid, like a legit tablet.

“Oh, damn!” Junhui squeals. “I want one of those!”

The alpha boy chuckles as he opens up his own calibration system, apparently syncing the Quartz contained in the closet, “Don’t worry, you guys were the one who made it, so.”

At that, the three engineers turned to each other and smiled proudly at each other as they nodded to themselves.

“Alright folks time to move. Gear up, take off in 5,” Seungcheol’s voice finally interrupts them through the comms.

“Okay then. Minwoo will do the calibrating and Jun can handle the switch on the other end,” Wonwoo explains. “Hansol with the inner switch and I’ll initiate the sequence. And you-” he points to Mingyu, who was the least to say, incredibly confused. “You hold the door.”

Mingyu nodded, that was his purpose in the first place anyway.

So they zipped up their suits and put their helmets on, aside from Mingyu who still required a little bit of help with squeezing his on, at which Wonwoo gladly took the role of. If he let out a bit of steam while he pushed and knocked on the younger’s head through the helmet while trying to fit the alpha’s head into the gear, then so be it.

The three men stepped into the closet and settled in. Wonwoo to the far left, closest to the inner panel to initiate his part of the sequence. Mingyu attached to his right, front and center, ready when his time comes. Followed by Hansol on the other end.

“Also, seeing you don’t have the necessary... equipment-” Minwoo gives the closet a once-over, clearly judging the makeshift time travel machine from the ‘past’.

“for high-speed traveling, there might be a little bit of pre-departure disruption. You’ll have to really put those guns to use, Dad,” the young alpha chuckles lightly before taking steps to get a few meters away from the closet, dragging along the Bong bot who was still reading out the mall’s inventory list.

Junhui has his hand ready on the outside lever. Wonwoo will need to begin the sequence, right then Minwoo will calibrate as quickly as he can and once he is done, Junhui will need to pull the exterior switch, uncapping Quartz-X’s powers before Hansol can pull the inner level to commence their jump.

At least that was the rundown of it that Mingyu received. And he will have to hold the door open long enough for Junhui to get inside before Hansol could basically throw them into their voyage.

“Remind me why it isn’t this complicated when we departed?” Mingyu asks, his hands on the handles of the closet door, gripping them in his fist tightly. As much as it seems ridiculous that they really made him come along just to ‘hold the door’, he’s still a little scared they’re _actually_ being serious and he’ll really have to use all the strength he’s got.

Seungcheol’s voice comes up on the comm, “Because I was there, obviously?”

“Aren’t you guys like super-geniuses, why can’t you just make us poof into time travel with just one push of a button? Why does it have to be lever this, sequence that, fancy hacky word here, scientific sciency science thing there?”

Hansol sighs as steps up beside Mingyu before he turns to Wonwoo, who nods, “It would be my pleasure.”

Before Mingyu could react, Hansol smacked the back of Mingyu’s head causing him to yelp.

Mingyu, looking scandalized, “I’m older than you??!”

Seungcheol laughs over the comms as he answers Mingyu’s question instead, “As much as we’ve tried to simplify the process, we’re still figuring out the whole time-travel thing, y’know. Just, trust us. The next few months or maybe a year or two, you come back into the lab, we’ll make that one push of the button concept work somehow.”

Wonwoo rolls his eyes when Mingyu turns to him with a pout as he rubs the back of his head.

“Alright, ready for departure. In one minute. Have you said your farewells to your son yet?” the mechanic over the comms asks.

“Y-yeah. I guess?” Mingyu says lowly. He turns his gaze to the boy standing far away from them, eyes glued to the tablet in his hands. The boy’s features, when he’s looking focused like that really remind him of someone. He turns to his side to see Wonwoo squinting his eyes at the display panel, typing stuff over the keyboard.

_Well, there it is._

He smiles to himself and turns back to see Minwoo waving at them, “Bye guys!!”

The four men smile and reply the farewell in their own way, Mingyu and Junhui being the more outspoken ones, wave wildly, while Hansol and Wonwoo sheepishly sneak a single wave before returning to their posts.

“Alright, Quartz powering up in 10 seconds. Countdown,”

Seungcheol’s voice echoed in Mingyu’s ear and if he was being honest, that was probably the last thing he was able to process properly.

He remembered thinking; _I’m just holding the door. Can’t be that hard, right?_

Well.

As soon as Seungcheol’s countdown hit zero, Mingyu recalls seeing a white blanket of light covering his vision through the visor, completely erasing the image of Minwoo standing before him. The rays intensify as it shifts into hues of purples and pinks, bright clear colors blinding him, carrying him into a trance as it deafens his senses.

He forgets to breathe. He feels his arms and legs shake and his knees almost buckle if not for a pair of arms catching his sides.

He can hear Wonwoo’s voice ringing in his ears. He catches the faint lavender scent close to him before it moves away again.

The omega’s voice rings loudly again and Mingyu tries to make out the words as he blinks and shakes his head, still seeing white in his vision.

“Hol...”

_Wonwoo?_

“Mingyu! Hold-”

_Wonwoo-hyung!_

“Kim fucking Mingyu! Get your fucking shit together and hold the fucking door! Jun needs to get the fuck in!!”

Wonwoo’s shout snaps Mingyu out of his trance.

His vision clears to a sight of Hansol gripping the inside lever, leaning with all of his strength declining the lever as it tugs to the other way. “I can’t- hold it! Much longer!”

“Hyung!” Mingyu turns to Wonwoo who is leaning against one of the closet doors, desperately pushing it open with all of his strength, but he only manages to let a creak of light through.

Mingyu realizes the entire closet was shaking. It wasn’t just his arms and legs giving up on him but he was thrown backward due to the horrible disruption. He shakes his head, trying to shrug off the stars he sees in his vision and stands up quickly, rushing to place his grips on the closet door handles.

“What is this, plane turbulence?!” Mingyu managed to joke before he groans and he grits his teeth. Locking his footing in place despite the awful disruption attempting to jostle them around.

With one determined grunt, he leans his entire weight on one hard push and manages to slowly drag the door open – he deemed – big enough for Junhui to slip into. The still bright hues outside almost blinds Mingyu but he manages to bring his eyes down before he got tranced by it again.

He feels the force of the exterior forcefield pushing against the door and the pressure beginning to burden his chest, making it hard to maintain his breath. He grits his teeth again and pushed harder. This definitely is not something he could handle easily; his hand began to redden and he could feel his muscles giving up on him.

Wonwoo was also sort of helping as he leaned his weight against the door, he groans as well when he’s shoved to the side at a particularly hard quake of the closet.

“Junhui! Get the fuck in!” Wonwoo yells, even though he’s sure Junhui can hear him easily through the comms.

Junhui’s groans were heard this time, “Ugh! I’m- trying! It- won’t- budge!!”

“Push harder!” Wonwoo yelled again.

“Shut up! I’m- trying!!!”

Hansol grunted as he turned the other way now, attempting to push the lever away from the tugged direction instead of pulling this time.

“Uncle Jun!” Minwoo’s voice is heard through the comms, startling Wonwoo. “I think you should pull the lever at the same time with Uncle Hansol!” he explains.

“Did- Did you? Just hack into my comm system, Minwoo?” Wonwoo questioned, shocked.

“Not important, Dad! The exterior lever is probably stuck because the cap is also restraining against the Quartz! I think you should be able to loosen it by activating it!”

“Really?! Okay!” Junhui replies loudly. “Heard that Sol?!”

“Yea!” Hansol let out another groan, “I won’t push all the way so you better make it the fuck in before I do!”

“Alright! Here goes whatever the fuck this is! Ready?! 3!”

2.

1-

Mingyu grits his teeth and braces himself as he watches Hansol slowly allow the lever to tug into the other way. As expected, the disruption got worse and Wonwoo decided to let go of the door to put his arms around Mingyu’s waist in order to weigh the alpha down in place instead, while the stronger alpha uses all of his strength to keep the door open. He let out a deep grunt, signaling his near-defeat as he closes his eyes and feels his arms vibrating, almost giving out.

Just before he was really about to crumble, a silhouette covered his vision from the bright hues outside, pushing him back as the man slips in.

The closet door slams shut immediately and Mingyu, Wonwoo, the man included was thrown to the back panel of the closet with a loud thud as a result of the whiplash.

“I’m in, Sol!!” Junhui yells as he struggles to stand and latches the door completely shut.

Hansol grunts again as he pulls the inner lever completely, making the disruption multiply tenfold; as if there was an earthquake right inside the closet, throwing them around like they weighed nothing.

Mingyu pulls the nearest person to him into a tight hug as his vision blackens.

He doesn’t recall how long it’s been but when he realizes it everything is quiet and static, and he’s laying on his side. He opens his eyes and he’s met with a pair of closed eyes right in front of his. Their visors were basically attached to each other’s and if it wasn’t for the helmet putting distance between them, Mingyu would’ve probably been pressing their faces together.

Which was probably a good thing because the person he is hugging is not exactly someone he’d like to have that close of a skinship with.

“Guys?! Do you copy?” Seungcheol’s voice registered in their ears.

Mingyu pulls away from the tight grip he has on the man and said man opens his eyes too, looking startled as he yelped and let go of Mingyu as well while he sat up.

“Ew!” he says playfully. “Sorry, Gyu. I appreciate your emotions for me but I have a hot af Xu Minghao from department 9 waiting for me in the future and I don’t want to disappoint him,” his tone clearly just teasing Mingyu.

Mingyu scoffed before sitting up too, “Fuck off Jun.”

Junhui smiled and held out his hand, which Mingyu immediately took as they gripped through their bro-shake. “Thanks Mingyu, couldn’t have made it back without your help.”

“Let’s see if we _did_ make it back,” the person-Mingyu-wished-he-had-been-hugging-instead’s voice came up behind them. Wonwoo shakes his head, shrugging the dizziness from the intense travel as he slowly got up on his feet and walked over to the door. Junhui followed suit and his legs wobbled a bit when he stood up.

“Forcefield has weakened sufficiently,” Hansol mentions as he clutches his head with one hand, the other arm bracing himself against the wall as he stood and read the panel. “Seungcheol?”

When did the guy even stand up? Mingyu didn’t realize at all. He shakes his own head and grabs Junhui’s extended hand, pulling Mingyu up on his own feet as well.

Wonwoo unlatched the closet door and pushed as hard as he can until the door swung open.

They were greeted with the familiar dim lighting of Seungcheol’s basement lab. And three faces waiting for them.

“Welcome back, losers,” Seungcheol says as he walks over to the closet following behind Jeonghan who made a move first.

“Most of all, I’m glad you guys are in one piece,” Jeonghan chuckles as he wraps his arms around Junhui who had stepped down the closet first.

The other man, Seungkwan was wailing as he ran over and jumped onto the closet, not even waiting for everyone else to step down as he shoved himself in the blonde beta’s arms. He murmured some gibberish into Hansol’s chest in between his cries and Hansol blushed at the sight of his boyfriend for some reason. He thinks it’s maybe because he knows a little more than he’d like to now. But he also thinks he’d gladly accept any future if it’s with the man in his arms. He takes the opportunity of having his expression concealed behind his helmet and smiles properly as he wraps his arms around the omega’s waists.

“Wow, just one second in and they’re back to being saps,” Junhui groaned lightheartedly as he took his helmet off. Pushing his hair back so it settles nicely on his head.

“Oh, you should’ve seen Seungkwan’s state when he marched in here with Jeonghan a few hours ago. He kept demanding I summon his boyfriend back now and that if anything happens to Hansol he was going to shove the Quartz down my throat,” Seungcheol greeted Junhui with a hug amidst the complaint.

“Well I would have done the same if you didn’t return my children back safely as well,” Jeonghan pinched the alpha’s side making him yelp in pain.

Jeonghan and Seungcheol both gave Mingyu and Wonwoo hugs before continuing their banters and conversation with Junhui about how it was like in the future, at which Junhui hushed them and snuck an arm around Jeonghan’s shoulders instead, “Yeah, yeah it was great. But I heard there is a certain Xu in your department Hannie~ I mean, I’m not trying to be a good friend but a good friend should know _all_ about your friend’s friend, right?”

Junhui dragged the couple away, somewhat obviously giving Wonwoo and Mingyu space to talk with themselves.

Wonwoo took off his helmet and placed it on the table nearest to them and motioned for Mingyu to come over as well. Mingyu stood right in front of him and the omega helped unclasp the helmet before helping him squeeze out of the gear.

“If I was to do that again, you guys better get me a better fitting helmet,” Mingyu pushes his hair back.

Wonwoo’s lips curl up in a smile, “You’d want to do it again?”

The taller alpha returns the smile with a grin, “Of course. I’d go anywhere with you, hyung.”

The omega let out a small chuckle before he turns his gaze to the floor, biting his lips before continuing, “You know I’m really sorry, Min. That I made you go through that, and now you know things you might not want to know.”

Mingyu watches how Wonwoo shrinks himself, obviously feeling guilty with a mix of underlying anxiousness about the status of their relationship – if it was any in the first place. Mingyu reciprocates the doubtful emotions, but he thinks maybe it’s time he made it clear, at least for himself.

Whatever it is will happen, it shouldn’t bother him. He knows his feelings for Wonwoo is real, and he would’ve realized it sooner or later even if he didn’t go through the entirety of this voyage anyways.

He doesn’t want them to drift apart just because of the fact that the future tells them they will be together; that would be ironic and stupid. It’s also ridiculous but he believes he would be fine with pining. Even if Wonwoo isn’t interested in him after all and doesn’t want to see him that way, then Mingyu is fine with being friends. Not exactly _fine_ , but anything goes as long as he’ll get to stay by the omega’s side.

“I’ll wait for you, hyung.” He says, voice quiet but loud enough to be heard clearly by the omega standing in front of him.

Wonwoo’s eyes immediately went up to meet Mingyu’s.

Now those orbs reflected the dimmed fluorescent lights and that one blue-red-green neon sign Seungcheol has up of a martini cocktail – which he probably stole from a bar or something – yet Mingyu still believes it is equally as enchanting.

He gives the elder the sincerest smile he could muster, thinking of how much he adores the omega and really cares deeply for him – because he really means it.

"We're good, hyung," the alpha sighs as he goes in to wrap his arms around the elder's shoulders, pulling him closer towards him.

A breath, a sigh of relief from the omega when he brings his hands up and rests them against the alpha’s sides, relaxing in the alpha’s embrace.

Wonwoo’s hug is warm and Mingyu smiles to himself before he pulls away slightly and softly places a kiss on Wonwoo's temple.

The omega let his eyes close at the soft contact and when he pulled away, they met each other’s gaze.

It was obvious how they bled fondness for one another all this time. Maybe it was just Mingyu being dumb and oblivious or maybe it was also Wonwoo in denial and just being stubborn, but this voyage really showed them the truest nature of their attachment to one another.

They were just plainly _fucking in love_.

Wonwoo smiles to himself before letting his expression turn into a teasing one, "You missed."

"What?"

Wonwoo tiptoes a little to bring a kiss to Mingyu's lips.

A solid press of those cushions on the alpha’s and he could feel his cheeks really heating up. His heart skipped a beat and yes, there were no mandatory movie magic fireworks going on but maybe the sound of his heart exploding in his chest makes up for it instead.

It wasn’t a heated, needy kiss. It didn’t last long, maybe a couple of seconds. Just a press of the lips, but enough to convey the various emotions they felt.

It felt perfect and, just _fucking good._

Mingyu chuckles and Wonwoo pulls away, a surprised expression on his face as he bites his bottom lip.

“What?” the omega questions. “Was it that bad?”

The alpha smiles as he hums, “Hm, corny, but-”

He leans down and closes in to press a light peck at the very corner of the omega’s lips, whispering, “ _fucking_ _good_.”

Now it’s time for the omega to snort a laugh at the cheesy alpha, who grants him another kiss to his cheek while pulling the omega in closer, marrying their laughter together.

“Okay, I’ll show you _much_ better things later,” Wonwoo whispers into the alpha’s ears as they stayed in their embrace, just relinquishing in each other’s scent.

_Well, fuck. Now he absolutely has to go and make sure Minwoo exists ;)_

**Author's Note:**

> Currency; let's assume living cost get higher in the future, right? So the 3 million Junhui got from the helmet was probably not as much. So maybe around $5,000 or less? He probably used like $200-300 to survive within the three weeks he was there i dunno lol.
> 
> Parade; in case you didn't catch it, the parade is very important to Seungcheol. It's a memorial parade he organized to commemorate Jeonghan and the others who were involved in the accident in department 9. I have strong urges to write a whole story on this pair, ugh.
> 
> The other members of SVT; i didn't actually think as far about them but maybe we can make some up since it's fun;  
> Design & Development  
> Dept 3 - Choi Seungcheol (leader)(mech), Wen Junhui (mech), Jeon Wonwoo (tech), Chwe Hansol (tech)  
> Dept 9 - Yoon Jeonghan (leader)(mech), Xu Minghao (China/SK rep)(tech), Kwon Soonyoung (the one who had neon hair)(mech), Lee Chan (tech)
> 
> Research & Innovation  
> Dept 1 - Kim Mingyu, Boo Seungkwan (lab)  
> Dept 7 - Lee Jihoon (leader)(lab), Lee Seokmin (lab)
> 
> While we're at it let's make Hong Jisoo our Consortium President heck yea!


End file.
